AP World History: Ideas of Karl Marx

The Communist Manifesto

(co-authored with Friedrich Engels in 1848) was a pamphlet which outlined his basic socialist ideas (Marx used the term "communist" to distinguish his more "scientific" views from those of the Utopian Socialists, whom he scorned as "dreamers."

Surplus value

Capitalists exploit workers by paying them just enough wages to keep them alive; that is, just above the subsistence level. The difference between their wages and the value of the goods the workers produce, Marx called the surplus value. Although the capitalists contribute nothing to production, according to Marx, they take the surplus value as profit. Consequently, workers lack sufficient income to purchase all the goods produced, and this, in turn, Marx claimed, leads to depression.

Karl Marx

German writer and economist, founded modern socialism. After the Revolution of 1848, he was exiled from Prussia, moved to Paris, and eventually settled in England.

Class struggle

Marx also viewed history as a struggled between conflicting economic classes, between the "haves" and Have-nots." In ancient Rome, plebeians battled patricians; in feudal society, serfs opposed lords; under private enterprise, the workers (proletariat) clash with the capitalists (bourgeoisie). This class struggle, Marx predicted, would continue until the workers triumph and establish a "classless" society. They would establish a temporary "dictatorship" of the proletariat which would ultimately "wither away."

Economic interpretation of history

Marx argued that economic conditions determine the course of history. The class that possesses the economic power controls the government and the social institutions. In an industrial society, based on private ownership, the capitalist class (the bourgeoisie) rules.

Inevitability of Socialism

Marx predicted that capitalism would destroy itself as depressions become more and more serious. In time, he said, wealth would concentrate in fewer and fewer hands, while workers' conditions steadily deteriorate. Eventually, the workers would be driven to overthrow the capitalists and establish a socialist state. They would win by their greater number. Marx did not make clear how the overthrow of capitalism would come about. However, he was certain that socialism would first come to industrial nations such as Great Britain or Germany, and not agricultural ones. Marx believed that socialism would be achieved not by appeals to the capitalist class, but by the working class as an inevitable result of the above economic laws.

Das Kapital (1880's)

was a detailed study critically analyzing the capitalist system and expounding his ideas of socialism.